South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Fri 28th Apr)

Forecast Summary (tl;dr)

• Large E'ly groundswell building Sat, early light winds
• Strong Sun but with an early N'ly wobble at exposed spots (gen south of border)
• E'ly swells easing gradually from Sun PM onwards, though still solid Mon, clean with light winds
• Smaller leftovers from Wed onwards
• Minor swells for the long term

Recap

Stacks of surf on the points, a little wind affected early Thurs but fun through the afternoon, and then clean today. Open stretches managed 3-5ft sets on Thursday (smaller on the points) but it's muscled up a little more today.

This weekend (Apr 29 - 30)

No shortage of east swell this weekend, with the low in the northern Tasman Sea generating some impressive energy that'll build through Saturday towards a peak early Sunday.

Exposed coasts can look forward to sets in the 5-6ft+ range, with smaller options along the regional points, and the position of the low and its slow moving nature should ensure a broad spread of energy across most regions.

Conditions should be excellent Saturday morning with light variable winds, though we'll see northerlies freshen along the Mid North Coast through the day and this may encroach the Northern Rivers and SE Qld late in the afternoon (though without a lot of strength north of Yamba).

The trough responsible for the northerly will push offshore in the early hours of Sunday morning, returning a light variable pattern though there is a risk of a northerly wobble through the groundswell lines (grreater risk in the south than in the north). However conditions should improve through the morning, ahead of afternoon sea breezes in the north, and a shallow southerly change across the lower Mid North Coast associated with a low pressure system off Southern NSW.

All in all, stacks of surf but make the most of the mornings.

Next week (Apr 31 onwards)

Make the most of the first half of next week as things are expected to slow considerably through the second half.

Monday will see easing though still strong surf from the weekend's powerful east swell, with 4-6ft sets at exposed beaches easing to 3-4ft through the day. Expect smaller surf along the points, and a focus of the upper end of this size range along the Northern NSW coast (rather than SE Qld), thanks to the orientation of the rotating fetch in the northern Tasman Sea, which will have also been dropping slowly to the south.

Conditions should be clean across most locations regions under a light westerly flow. Models are differing on the synoptics in the southern Tasman Sea early next week though the general consensus across northern regions is the same.

A further easing trend of east swell will then play out through Tuesday and by Wednesday morning we'll be back to slow 2-3ft sets at exposed beaches, becoming even smaller through the back half of the week. It'll be a fun couple of days for the beachies, banks pending (following the weekend's longer period energy).

The long term outlook has a mixture of small swells, the best one for us will be sourced from a distant ridge building to the south-east of Fiji from about Tuesday onwards that should supply small infrequent trade swells from next weekend onwards.

Additionally, a series of strong fronts passing below Tasmania should kick up some small southerly groundswells for Northern NSW though nothing spectacular is on the cards just now.

Have a great weekend!